Play the best, get the result
The Bangladesh Cricket Board has wanted to know from the team captain and the coach the reasons of the Bangladesh team’s defeat in the hands of the ‘babe’ Afghanistan in the 12th Asian Cup Cricket underway in Dhaka.
There is no doubt that hardly any one believed that the hosts would lose to the team from the Central Asia although anything could happen in sports. At the same time there is no reason to undermine the strength of Afghanistan whose junior team outclassed Australia by 77 runs in the just concluded U-19 World Cricket Championship in Abu Dhabi. I think that Afghanistan has a bright future as a sports nation.
Their soccer team had already annexed the South Asia Football title beating India in the final last year. An official of the Afghanistan Football Federation said that they were now planning to play in the final round of the Asian Cup Football next year and the World Cup Football in 2018.
Upsets are part of sports. There occurred so many upsets in every discipline of sports all over the world. South Korea beat China in the basketball discipline of the 2002 Asian games. The result was considered to be the most sensational. After the game, when asked, a South Korean player said, “We never thought that we would be able to beat the Chinese. We just wanted to play our best and we got the result.”
None thought of dethroning Chinese women badminton team, considered invincible for years. Time has changed and we see Thailand and India securing gold and bronze medal respectively in the women’s single event of the World Badminton Championship last year.
The lesson is that every athlete must play his/her best while the selectors must be fair and the government should extend financial guarantee. There is no need of becoming upset in the defeat to Afghanistan. We can repair our mistakes that we can surge ahead. Let us play our best against Pakistan.
Ameer Hamzah
Dhaka
